Is it Spring yet?

I don't know about you, but I'm ready for this Winter to be over.  Not because it's been a hard Winter, but because it has felt much more like a long, extended Fall.  With cool temperatures, but rarely brutally cold, and barely any snow,  the weather has been ideal for walking the dogs, but also has created the ideal conditions for my backyard to turn to mud.  And I am over it!  

I've especially hated the last couple of weeks because as they run and play in the yard, they continue to create more mud, and I have to wipe off muddy paws every time they come inside.  And that is getting old!  This morning, I let them out for a little time in the yard, and when they came back in 10 minutes later, they had mud splattered up and down their legs and all over their bellies.  I then spent the next 20 minutes rinsing them off in the tub to help prevent the spread of mud through the house...but honestly fighting the mud has become a losing battle.  So our weather either needs to get cold enough to freeze the ground for a longer period of time, or start to warm up and dry out so that I have a fighting chance and so, hopefully, some of my lawn will recover from the damage.  

On Monday, the girls and I made a trip to Benjamin Davis Park for our after work walk.  I'm so glad we're reaching the time of year when the sunset is late enough for us to be able to get in a nice walk after a full day of work.  We have walked here often over the years, and I was disappointed to see that some of the work that Consumers is doing along the power lines on the park boundary led to the cutting down of a huge swath of trees... the views from the park have really been ruined because of it, plus I can't help but think of the wildlife habitat that has been lost.  What a shame!

Tuesday was a busy day at work and Mina had her Doggie Do Good Class in the evening, but it was also Valentine's Day.  The girls each got a special treat and a toy to celebrate, but overall it was a pretty uneventful day for us.  

Wednesday night I walked Tootsie Roll during our shelter dog walk.  She was a total sweetheart and we thoroughly enjoyed our walk together.  

Thursday the weather forecast called for rain, and potentially freezing rain as well as a couple of inches of snow.  We took a quick walk before I stated work for the day, and I had hoped to get them out for a nice mid-morning walk while it was still dry and sunny, but my crazy morning of work prevented that from happening.  By the time I was able to take my lunch and get the dogs out, the rain had started.  I was determined to get them out for a nice walk regardless of the weather because I didn't know what the condition of the sidewalks would be on Friday.  So we bundled up and headed out into the sprinkles.  Luckily it wasn't bad for most of our walk and we enjoyed the time outside in the fresh air.  By the end of my work day, the sleet/freezing rain had moved in, so we played lots of fetch and then settled in for a nice quiet evening at home.  

We woke Friday morning to snow on the ground, and although it wasn't much, I welcomed the beautiful white blanket.  It was nice to get a break from the brown muddiness.  I also got a reprieve from muddy paws for almost 24 hours!

Because there was a layer of ice under the snow, the sidewalks in the neighborhood weren't safe for walking so we kept busy with training, brain games, and several rounds of fetch.  Mina seemed very happy with the endless rounds of fetch and crashed for the night earlier than normal.

I started my Saturday morning walking Shortbread at the shelter.  What a darling little girl!  I then joined a geocaching event and ran some errands before heading home.  

After getting home, I decided to load the girls into the car and go for a drive.  We headed out for a nice drive in the country outside of Marshall to do some geocaching.  I spent a few hours just driving around and picked up several caches along the way.  It was a beautiful late afternoon in the farmlands

On our way home, we stopped in Olivet for a walk around the Olivet College campus.  It is a tiny little school, but it was good to get the girls out somewhere new.  They enjoyed all of the new smells and even met a student who gave them lots of love.

It was dark by the time we finished our walk, but I couldn't resist taking this picture of Mina when she jumped up next to the sign.  She was sitting so nicely.  She's such a good girl.

It is has been a quiet Sunday at home and when I wasn't cleaning mud off the girls, I spent a lot of time with either Peaches or Mina in my lap as we watched an interesting series on the History Channel on the history of food entrepreneurs in America.   Indid a little cleaning and there were more brain games and fetch, and I ended the evening with a big bowl of homemade chickpea noodle soup.   Yum!

I've got the day off for President's Day tomorrow and I'm looking forward to a visit with Fiona who is walking now and is officially 10 months old today.  My how time has flown since she was born!